


I owed you a goodbye

by MadSophHatter



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Donna being amazing, FIx It, Gen, Goodbye, Reunion, sad but happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 03:19:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2008968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadSophHatter/pseuds/MadSophHatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before he has to face his own death at Lake Silencio the Doctor visits some people who are important to him. </p>
<p>Before he goes to see Craig, the last on his list, he visits Donna Noble on the one day when it doesn't matter if she remembers him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I owed you a goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> To me this is a fix-it fic because those two never got to say goodbye properly. I hope I did them justice.

“Spoilers! No reading ahead!” said a male voice before someone gracelessly plopped down on the chair right next to me. I jerked away in surprise, letting go of the last page of the book I was reading. The thumb of my left hand was still firmly pressed between the pages I was supposed to be reading instead. 

 

“Why not?” I retorted without looking up, “It’s not like the story changes just because I already know the ending.”

 

“You never know, it might”, he replied, suddenly very quiet and without the former enthusiasm. I finally looked up, assessing this intruder of my personal space. It was a young man, his light brown hair somewhere between long and short, with a ridiculously big quiff almost obscuring large greenish eyes. Those looked tired and strangely too old for his smooth face. Looking farther down I noticed the bow-tie around his neck, its deep red colour matching that of the braces only just visible underneath his white coat. 

 

“You’re a doctor?” I asked and gestured towards the stethoscope hanging like a prop around his neck.   
“I’m the Doctor. And whom do I have the honour of talking to?” 

 

My mum had often warned me to not talk to strangers. I rather took after my grandma though, and she had firmly taught me to never forego a chance of adventure – especially not for the dubious promise of security. Regarding my current situation this curious man – the Doctor – was very likely to be my only opportunity at having something even remotely close to an adventure.

 

“I’m Agatha, nice to meet you, Doctor.” He forcefully shook the hand I was offering him – a tiny bit longer than would have felt comfortable.   
“My pleasure, Agatha. Who are you here for?”

 

“I’m visiting my Grandma Donna. You must’ve heard of her terrorising the staff.” I paused searching his face for a sign of recognition, which I got in the form of crinkles around his eyes that looked like he was smiling but his mouth didn’t seem to have got the memo. “She’s been here for a while now, but today the hospital called and said we should come over because it’s bad.”  
I looked down at the book I was still holding and played with the pages.

 

“Then why are you sitting here and not with her?” he asked his quiet voice echoing mine, “Don’t you like your grandmother?”

 

“No! That’s not it. She’s great. I love her to bits! She knows the greatest stories, you know. You should hear her tell those about the Martian who travels through time and space in a box and is super clever but also super stupid at the same time – and he always helps people.”  
I finally looked up to see that he was studying his shoes, but there was a wide grin on his face.

 

“That sounds like her alright,” he said, seemingly seeing something from his memories rather than his big feet, “Then how come you’re not with her right now?”

 

I gave him my darkest look in order to underline the gravity of the situation.   
“Her room’s full. My whole family is in there and they’re loud and obnoxious and probably arguing about something.   
I’d love to see her – really – but it’s just so stressful. I can’t take it. I’d rather be alone with her.”

 

At that the Doctor abruptly rose from his chair, reaching for my hand and pulling me to my feet as well.   
“Then come along, Agatha. Coincidentally I need to talk to your Granny Donna as well – and I need to talk to her alone.” 

 

My book remained abandoned on the chair as I followed him. The Doctor walked fast, his white coat billowing behind him like a cape. What a show-off!   
When we reached Grandma’s room and he opened the door, a solid wall of noise hit us. My face turned the colour of a radish as the members of my extended family were doing their best to shout over one another. Only when I recognised that the loudest voice belonged to my grandma, who was currently uttering some profanities, did a smile pull up the corners of my mouth.

 

The Doctor tried to gain my family’s attention by loudly clearing his throat and jumping around the people crowding the small room. This didn’t have much effect as they had their backs turned to us. As a desperate measure the Doctor put two fingers to his lips and whistled – the tune high and loud, going directly to my spine and leaving an uncomfortable tingling there. 

 

Suddenly the silence could have been cut with a knife. I saw my mother and her brother turn around to face the newcomer. The short-lived silence ended when my family started to bombard the Doctor with questions.   
Holding his hands up in desperation didn’t help him at all. 

 

“Oi! Give the man a moment to talk! Shut up, all of you!” That was Grandma Donna’s booming voice and it worked wonders.  
The Doctor reacted fast, explaining into the new-fallen silence that he needed to talk to his patient alone for a moment – important business, medical stuff, you know. He didn’t hesitate to usher the rest of my family out, ignoring their questions. Instead of answering he told them to go to the waiting room, have some tea, and be quiet for once.

 

When my family had left, the Doctor beckoned me to follow him into the now empty room. Upon entering I took a good look at my grandma, whom I hadn’t seen in weeks. She looked a bit more pale than usual and her white hair stood away from her head, reminding me of an old-fashioned broom. But her face lit up when she spotted me. To me she looked very much like my good old grandmother – not like someone who was about to die.

 

“Agatha! I missed you. I thought your mum forgot you at home. You’re always so quiet, she wouldn’t even notice if you were missing. But I noticed. Come here, love.”  
She spread her arms wide. I tried to ignore all the tubes pumping stuff into and out of her arms as I ran towards her and let myself fall into the familiar warm hug. Before the smell of disinfectant and medicine kicked in, I could make out the fragrance I’d always connected with my grandma Donna – a bit sweet like vanilla or a second-hand bookshop full of stories.   
I pulled away and leaned against a wall, leaving the Doctor some room to talk to her.

 

“Donna Noble”, he started just to be promptly corrected.   
“It’s Donna Temple-Noble. I’m a widow, not an old spinster! And who the hell told those unnerving people I call my family that I’m about to die? I’m fine. I feel fine. But the stress of having them all here at once might just kill me. So who called them?”   
Grandma Donna had gotten slightly louder with every sentence and was now positively yelling at the Doctor. I didn’t know why but it felt wrong somehow. As a doctor he was a person to be respected after all. Knowing my grandma and her position concerning authority figures though, it felt very right at the same time.

 

“Yeah, that was me who called them. You might not like it. You might not even believe it. I’m so so sorry but today is the last day of your life. I know that, I checked”, replied the Doctor while Grandma Donna opened her mouth in disbelief.

 

“You Dumbo! You cannot know that”, she huffed while the Doctor just smiled and murmured.   
“Dumbo… haven’t heard that one in a while. Makes me a bit nostalgic.” Then he continued loud and clear, “Linear progression through time – so boring. But you know better, Donna!”  
With that he pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning on. It only took him three long strides and he was by her side. The Doctor put his fingers on either side of her shocked face. Grandma Donna swallowed the insult that had already been on the tip of her tongue. For a moment the universe just seemed to stop, and I too was stunned into silence.

The moment passed though. He took his hands away. Grandma Donna’s eyes grew impossibly big before a broad grin spread on her face.   
“Oi spaceman, it’s you! You came back for me.”  
“Oi, earthgirl. I tend to do that these days”, the Doctor replied, pushing some stray hairs out of his face in a flamboyant gesture.

 

They seemed to have completely forgotten about me, which was fine since I didn’t want to intrude. I had no idea what they were talking about anyway.

 

Grandma Donna was laughing now, “Look at you, you changed quite a bit. You’re a spaceboy now. The chin is ridiculous. And the bow-tie! Are you serious?”  
“Hey! Bow-ties are cool. But you’re right. I’m not the man you knew anymore. Maybe I should have come to you sooner. But I wasn’t ready then – to lose you all over again.” The Doctor’s voice had gone flat and his features belied pain and regret.

 

With a serious expression my grandma asked, “And how come you’re coming to me now?”  
“Well when you start planning your own funeral”, he answered, looking away, “you remember all the ones you didn’t attend.”  
Grandma Donna searched his face but kept quiet for a while. A heavy silence weighed down on me now. There was nothing left of the sense of happy reunion that had dominated the scene a few minutes ago. 

 

The silence had become almost unbearable when the Doctor suddenly looked up at my grandma, his features more hopeful this time, and spoke once again.  
“I needed to see you. I owed you this, Donna Noble. I owed you the knowledge that you saved the world and that you saved my life in so many ways. My friends have always been the best of me, and you might have been the best of them all. But you were one of the tragic ones, one who deserved better, and I have always felt guilty because I couldn’t give you that.  
But before I go, before I die, I wanted to lift at least some of that guilt off my shoulders. I couldn’t go back and make it right; the least I could do was to come here and to make it a bit less wrong. I owed you the memory that there are worlds out there safe in the sky because of you; that there are people in the light singing songs of you, Donna Noble, a thousand million light-years away.”

 

I had no idea what this stranger was talking about, but it had sounded sincere and it seemed to be incredibly important to him. Only after blinking a few times did I notice the tears in my eyes. I looked over at my grandma, who had been schooling her features in a frown throughout his entire speech. Now her face screwed up into a mocking grimace as a snort escaped her, preceding a burst of laughter.  
The look of indignation and surprise on the Doctor’s face was priceless.

 

After calming down a bit Grandma Donna quipped, “So, still a drama queen aren’t you? Don’t you ever change?! Oh, come here you mad stupid, intelligent man!” With that she spread her arms for him and the Doctor hugged her, his position a bit awkward since he was standing up next to her bed. When he started to squirm and fidget she let him go.

“There is no need to feel guilty or sorry for me”, Grandma Donna took a deep breath before going on, “I never travelled the world, you know. Maybe deep down I could feel that I had seen all the important things already or that nothing on earth could compare to travelling with you. But I had a good life. I have a great – if unnerving – family. I had a lovely husband and wonderful friends. And most importantly I outlived Neris!” They both chuckled at that.  
“And now they’re all here to say goodbye to me. Don’t you just love that? This is a happy ending, my happy ending, Doctor – so don’t you dare feel sorry for me!”

 

He couldn’t help but smile at that and I joined in. The knowledge that my grandma was happy and without regrets on the day she would die (if the Doctor were right) made me happy as well. I pushed away the feeling of loss already approaching me at the thought that I wouldn’t see her again after today. 

 

“So what about you, Doctor?”, she asked, “How have you been? How are you?”  
His answer “I’m alright.” was met with a raised eyebrow.   
“Okay, okay. Maybe I’m not quite alright. Maybe I feel very much not ready to go.” The Doctor was barely moving but still he managed to look as if he was bouncing off the walls. “But I have a family now too – people I can come back to whenever I want. So I don’t have to travel alone. Following your advice, you see?  
I might not be ready to go yet, but when I have to take my last journey, I want to do it like you – surrounded by my family.”

 

His eyes fell on me once more and the hopeful smile on his face broadened, finally reaching his eyes.  
“I think I should leave you to it. I’ll give you a few more minutes alone with Agatha before I send the mob back in.” With those words he was already back at the door.   
Before he could open it though, Grandma yelled “Oi, spaceboy!” again and added a bit more quietly, “That’s how I’d want you to go as well. You deserve to know that you are loved. Goodbye Doctor.”  
There was a warm glow in her eyes I had never seen before. It was mirrored in his. Both of them looked close to tears as the Doctor nodded, finally opened the door, and left.

 

I looked after him in awe. There was no doubt that I had just witnessed an exchange vital to history. But despite the knowledge about the weight of this moment I was unable to comprehend exactly what had just transpired. 

 

I was still trying to arrange my thoughts when Grandma Donna called for me, “Agatha dear, come over here. I wanna talk to you before the whole pack barges in here again. Do you wanna hear a story?”  
I nodded, feeling that this would be her last story and went to sit down on the edge of her bed. She lightly stroked my small hands with her bigger wrinkly ones as her level story-teller voice filled the room with warmth.

 

“Once upon a time there was a very sad man, traveling through time and space in a blue police box. He had just burnt up a sun to say goodbye to someone very dear to him when suddenly a bride appeared out of nowhere in the middle of his blue box…”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this feel free to visit my tumblr http://lilbasthet.tumblr.com/


End file.
